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Official Off-Season Thread of the Orlando Magic

Unfortunately, season ended a lot earlier then we would have thought due to the Dwight injury, but it is time to move on, this team out of all the NBA teams easily has the most uncertain path ahead of them. Whether we fire or keep Otis and Stan or trade or keep Dwight Howard remains unknown. Here is a thread for all that speculation, as well as discussing any trades. Let's keep it clean and go Magic!
Dwight Howard:

Necessary decisions will be made" if Dwight Howard declines to sign a contract extension with the Orlando Magic during the summer of 2012, team CEO Alex Martins said Tuesday night, reports David Baumann of Bright House Sports Networks. Howard, a six-time All-Star and the league's top overall center, can become an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career on July 1st, 2013, and Orlando wants to avoid losing him with no compensation.

On Howard's future, Martins said Tuesday "We'll cross that bridge when it comes to it," reports Baumann. But given that Howard is the axis on which the Magic franchise revolves, resolving his situation figures to be of the utmost importance when Orlando proceeds with its offseason.

Then again, Orlando could delay its overtures to Howard and instead focus on upgrading the players around him, making its extension pitch to the eight-year veteran only after overhauling the roster.

Otis Smith:

Otis Smith, the Orlando Magic's President of Basketball Operations, has one season remaining on his contract with the team, but he's yet to decide if he'll return to fulfill it, reports Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel.

"I haven't gotten into it," Smith said of his decision prior to Orlando's playoff ouster at the hands of the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday. "I'll have a conversation with a few people following the end of the season, and we'll see where we go from there."

Stan Van Gundy:

Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy has one year remaining on his contract, but rumors that his days in Orlando are numbered persisted throughout the season as reports of his relationship with superstar center Dwight Howard souring grew in frequency. The Indiana Pacers eliminated the Magic from the NBA playoffs on Tuesday in what might prove to be Van Gundy's last game at Orlando's helm.

"Yeah, I want to come back," Van Gundy told the media afterward, according to David Baumann of Bright House Sports Networks. "But that's not up to me. As far as the speculation... who gives a damn?" Baumann reports Van Gundy and team architect Otis Smith, officially Orlando's President of Basketball Operations, will face a review from team CEO Alex Martins and Chairman Dan DeVos.

Jameer Nelson:

After the Indiana Pacers eliminated his Orlando Magic from the NBA playoffs on Tuesday night, Orlando co-captain and point guard Jameer Nelson said he has yet to decide if he'll exercise his player option for the 2012/13 season, reports Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel.

If he uses the option, Nelson's salary--a reported $8.6 million, according to ShamSports--becomes locked in for the 2012/13 campaign, after which he'd become an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career. If Nelson declines the option, he'll become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, 2012. The St. Joe's product has until May 15th--one full week after Orlando's season ended--to make his decision, after which point he must notify the Magic.

Nelson said in late April he wants to finish his career with Orlando, and two reports the next day indicated Nelson was likely to choose free agency rather than pick up his option.

The Orlando Magic should re-sign swingman Tcy McGrady once free agency begins in July, writes David Aldridge of NBA.com in his weekly Morning Tip column. The veteran NBA writer argues the Magic have been at their best during the Dwight Howard era when they also employed "a small forward [...] whose size and playmaking ability allowed the other three players on the floor to do what they were on the court to do -- catch and shoot." Hedo Turkoglu isn't that player anymore, says Aldridge, but McGrady is. Aldridge cites McGrady's stellar assist-to-turnover ratios from his last two seasons as evidence that the former Magic superstar still has plenty to offer at the NBA level.

McGrady, who turns 33 later in May, averaged 5.3 points, three rebounds, and 2.1 assists for the Atlanta Hawks in the 2011/12 campaign and appeared in 52 of a possible 66 games. The year prior, with the Detroit Pistons, the Auburndale native posted averages of eight points, 3.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists in 72 appearances.

"If the Magic insist on the same four-out, one-in style around Howard next season," says Aldridge, "they have to have someone who can make things easier for the other guys." That'd be McGrady, who's played each of his last two seasons at the league's minimum salary and would thus be in Orlando's price range, despite its dire salary-cap situation.

In a March interview with Fox Sports Florida, McGrady argued that Howard should stay with the Magic instead of signing elsewhere. "It's a great city," he said. "It's great weather [....] So you already have something ragood there. Why try to go somewhere that you just never know?"

Orlando's incumbent small forwards are Turkoglu and Quentin Richardson, with Jason Richardson able to shift over from shooting guard if needed.

i read somewhere that Nelson might not pick up his option. If that is true, i hope we can then trade JJ to a team under the cap for a 2nd round pick. Then trade our 1st+2nd+Hedo to another team under the cap. That way we will have enough capspace to offer Dwill a max contract. No JJ and Hedo means we'll need to sign a wing for MLE (crawford?) and we can sign t-mac/bogans/stevenson/pietrus/bill walker for the vet min.
It all depends on if Nelson opts out or not.